K ING 'S BUSINESS PROPHECY SECTION Edited by Dr. Charles L. Feinberg, Director, Talbot Theological Seminary
ROPHECY B E I NG FULFILLED
by Gordon Chilvers / Norwich, England
W e need to know what to expect in this world, whether the news is good or bad. It is better to know of pos sible evil beforehand than to be disappointed when it is on us. In a dramatic address to little children, little children in the faith, John announced that a Pauline prophecy was being fulfilled before their very eyes. In his exhortation to the elders at Ephesus, the home of the Apostle John, Paul told them to beware: “For I know this, that after my de parting shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29,30). Even in Paul’s day the storm clouds were gathering; now the storm had broken. Jeru salem had been destroyed and the temple razed to the ground. The Church had been scattered and error was rampant. The aged apostle looks at fellow-Christians in the church and addresses them as “little children” (I John 2:18). In the tremendously solemn warning he is about to give he gathers up all his love for them in a loving greeting. It is “the last time.” This phrase is very intense and points out that it was not merely one of the last days, but it was a last hour. The sands of time were running out rapidly. The hour-glass points out that the day had almost run its course. “Ye have heard that antichrist shall come,” John says. The term antichrist describes one who “assuming the guise of Christ opposes Christ. . . the antichrist assails Christ by proposing to do or to preserve what He did while he denies Him” (Westcott). When John’s readers received his epistle, it is probable that the Book of Revela
tion was in their hands. In the thirteenth chapter of that book they would find the coming of antichrist clearly predicted. By the time John wrote, antichrist had be come the proper name for the wicked ruler to be raised up by the devil in the last days. The teaching of the coming of a personal antichrist was part of the general teaching of the apostle, and hence John knew that his readers would be well acquainted with the facts. The coming of antichrist might seem a remote event, but even while John was writing Satan was beginning to gather up his forces for the final struggle: “Even now are there many antichrists.” Before His death our Lord had predicted the rise of false Christs. “There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24). These had already appeared in their midst. Christians are well informed of the future hence we need not be surprised or deluded, so John says: “We know that it is the last time.” When evil is fully devel oped we know that it is the last time, and that the world is ready for divine judgment and such it already was. It is interesting to see the sign John gives of the approach ing end of the age. It is not the abounding of righteous ness and the conversion of the world, but the abounding of wickedness through the rise of antichrists. In the par able of the wheat and tares Christ declared that the sign of coming judgment would be the ripening of both tares and wheat; one ripening for glory, the other for con demnation. The necessity of the warning of their presence is now clearly seen. While these antichrists assembled with be-
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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